AoS Version 4

The new Atlas of Switzerland AoS is (since 2000) already version 4.

“The AoS is mandated by law by the Swiss Federation to visualize themes from different fields such as socio-economy, ecology, history and energy, etc. in an ongoing long-term project. Since its beginning in 1961, the aim of this Swiss national atlas is to offer cartographically sound maps in combination with additional information to the general public in order to visualize visible and hidden structures and processes.” (Source: Atlas of Switzerland goes online and 3D – Concept, Architecture and Visualization. Methods. René Sieber, Marianna Serebryakova, Raimund Schnürer, Lorenz Hurni. EuroCarto 2015)

Version 4 is a step forward. It
– is based on a platform open for third parties’ products,
– is available online and
– presents information on a globe model and in 3D.

Platform

The AtlasPlatformSwitzerland (APS) is the architectural framework for future AoS products. It also offers the possibility to publish affiliated atlases from other institutions; one example is the Hydrological Atlas of the University of Bern.

Online

After downloading the client software (for te moment Windows only), thematic maps can be selected from the online archive and viewed.
Besides the navigation in the Atlas itself an easy access to these maps is also given on AoS’ Website:

Presentation

And here comes the fascinating part of the new Atlas: The presentation based on an earth model and also in 3D.

In App Store and Google Play

The challenge: Storytelling in timesoftablets

Storytelling in the time of tablets and mobile people performs in a new field.
The idea and the message are old – let‘s call it the book paradigm.
But it‘s a book in new clothes. New aspects must be taken into account: new possibilities, skills, tools and processes.

.folio

After evaluation, the choice for a performant and sustainable publishing instrument fell on: .folio, an open format, part of Adobe‘s Digital Publishing Suite DPS.

.folio provides:

Standardised navigation

Wide range of presentation possibilities

Integration of internet content

Runs on most platforms, also browsers

Publication in the major stores

Production based on layout programs, editing systems or web content management systems

Open format (ZIP archive with PDF, HTML, XML inside).

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Rethink publication !

Electronic publication offers everything needed to make a story appealing. But this means:Rethink publication!

The aim here was to really stretch the technology and give it a tough visualisation challenge to see what it’s capable of. The underlying data used in the map contains over 60,000 migration flows – yet we have still managed to produce an interactive application that will run on an iPhone.

I will aim to write some more details later on the development process and the good and bad experiences of transitioning from a platform like Flash. But the majority of solutions to our problems came from a general realisation that HTML5 doesn’t really exist at all, but is more an amorphous mixture of inter-related technologies and javascript libraries that are becoming increasingly cohesive as a development platform. So – take a bow jQuery and Modernizr – these libraries in particular have really helped us to exploit HTML,SVG,Canvas,CSS, XML and javascript technology in a single, integrated document. There’s a way to go yet, but these initial results are extremely promising.

One other element I’m pleased on with this work is that we went beyond simple visualisation of the flow data here – every time you interact with the map to generate a flow visualisation, the browser performs a test to identify ‘significant’ flows (highlighted in orange, to attract your attention), based on a procedure first suggested in 1977 by Professors Peter Hagget and John Holmes. The speed with which that test is performed is real testimony to the improvements in javascript performance made by web browser developers in recent years. That we are now able to perform near real-time tests on statistical data of this volume in a web browser raises another interesting suggestion – that the key to many exciting visualisation challenges might lie in re-examining the past…

Happy New Year! One of the things I am looking forward to in 2012 is yet more improvements in the no-longer-humble web browser. The move towards ‘web apps’ has made browser manufacturers focus on the speed at which users can interact with a page (usually this is done via javascript). This has brought with it remarkable improvements to the usability of complex, interactive data graphics. By way of example, I’d point you to the following page, making sure you are using a modern browser (Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari or IE9+). The graphic uses open SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) content (not Flash) to show an interactive map of commuting patterns within Greater London (just mouseover the map to see dynamically-generated ‘flows’)

One of the reasons Flash has been so popular in recent years has been its better performance when dealing with complex animated/interactive content. But this map is easily handled by modern browsers (under Google Chrome, in particular, it flies along) – the excuse to use Flash for this kind of content is diminishing. Even better, because the content is based on open W3C technologies, it will work on any compatible browser, including mobile devices (e.g iOS 5+, Android 3+). Given the recent abandonment of mobile Flash by Adobe and the momentum towards greater mobile browsing, the rise of open standards for data graphics seems irresistible. And as a final bonus, there are some great visualisation libraries being put together which will make producing data graphics using these technologies even easier.

Here at ONS’ Data Visualisation Centre, we loved SVG a decade ago – so we’re really looking forward to re-working some of our existing Flash-based graphics back towards HTML5/SVG in the coming year – I’ll try and reflect on some of the experiences of doing this in a later post.

Mobile – social – open data and metadata – making data findable and attractive (visualisation!)!

mobile

‘Web technologies have become powerful enough that they are used to build full-featured applications; this has been true for many years in the desktop and laptop computer realm, but is increasingly so on mobile devices as well. A W3C document summarizes the various technologies developed in W3C that increase the power of Web applications, and how they apply more specifically to themobile context.’

findable and attractive

Finding the appropriate data in three clicks and understanding these data is a eternal challenge – not only for officuial statistics’ websites.

A lot has been done. See the new websites of Italy (ISTAT) and others (please update the information about new websites and put the links in a comment, thanks). More to come 2012 as Germany (destatis), Australia and Denmark and others (please … ) plan to bring their new websites.

Visualisation is a major topic in this context. Statistical offices present their interactive and visual content in overviews (i.e. destatis or FSO of Switzerland) and use more and more third party applications like NComVa (Italy, Eurostat) or Google public data (Catalunya).

Some thoughts on visualisation ..

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And there’s an issue whose importance is often underestimated. Not to forget: